On April 25th, Universal Studios Hollywood kicked off it’s brand new after hours event, Universal Fan Fest Nights (UFFN). Billed as an event to “…celebrate with other fans the best of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Gaming, and Anime like never before.” and to immerse yourself in the worlds of: Star Trek, Back to the Future, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ONE PIECE, and Jujutsu Kaisen, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ and SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™.
The idea of a Comic Con-esque experience at USH seemed rather odd when it was initially announced. Also, it was hard to conceptualize exactly what this event was going to be. For many of us fans of the park, the only major event we could compare it to was Halloween Horror Nights. Was this going to be a mashup of house style experiences with no scares? To be transparent, the descriptions on the official website didn’t help us picture the event either.
Thankfully, this event not only surpassed expectations. It set an all new standard for Universal Studios Hollywood events. UFFN was a perfect mixture of immersive experiences, characters, shows, and food. Its lighthearted energy was palpable and it was amplified when you saw so many people cosplaying as their favorite characters or their original characters from their DnD campaigns. It has the fun of HHN without the need to constantly look over your shoulder.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
To be honest, there were so many fantastic experiences that we had at UFFN, that it’s nearly impossible to really narrow it down to just one or two good things. So we’ll give a general highlight of what we thought worked the best, out of what we experienced.
We are ecstatic to finally see Yoshi join the Super Mario characters in Super Nintendo World. Not only that, but he brought along a fun egg hunt to allow guests to meet an extra special Yoshi, once they finish the hunt. For Nikki, this was a dream come true. Especially because she’s been a life long Yoshi fan. She nearly cried meeting him for the first time.
Spending time exploring SNW, looking for different color eggs, was more fun than we could have expected.
Next up, we have to mention the various magical creatures that have taken over The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At various times throughout the night, you can meet a baby dragon, an Occamy, and Niffler! These small additions, alongside Hogwarts Forever projection show, really bring the land to life. It makes me want more interactive characters throughout the land during the daytime as well.
These type of characters within the park solidify for us the idea that USH has the best meet and greet characters.
Dungeons and Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep has to be mentioned. We felt like this was a great introduction to the lore of DnD for those who are unfamiliar to the game but also serves as a great experience for those who are massive fans. It strays away from bringing a campaign to life and focuses more on the specific characters and monsters.
This experience also serves as a great introduction to immersive theater, in a small way. While it’s not nearly as involved as Creep or Delusion, it has many elements that people might find familiar. In fact, it will prepare people for the Back to the Future experience on the lower lot. But we’ll get to that later!
We also felt like the story was easy to follow and the narrative flowed well from scene to scene. Each move felt justified within the narrative, and didn’t feel forced. Within the story, we had a purpose to move to each scene, other than to just progress so other guests could come in.
There were multiple sections of this experience that had our jaws on the floor. Most of that comes from the various creatures and effects throughout. We simply weren’t anticipating something so expansive and immersive. We left impressed and wanting to experience it again.
Last, but certainly not least, we have Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley (BTTF). We would happily pay a full UFFN ticket to only experience this…it was that good. As we mentioned before, as Dungeons and Dragons felt like immersive theater light. BTTF felt like a fully realized immersive theater experience. But instead of an original story, it was the story of the original Back to the Future film. And instead of a simple location, it was on the Courthouse Square backlot location. This is where the actual Back to the Future films were filmed, including the exciting climax to the first film.
As a BTTF fan, this was completely overwhelming. From the musical cues, to the characters, story beats/moments, and familiar landmarks. Everything was simply perfect! We quickly found ourselves lost within the story, trying to interact with Biff, Doc Brown, and Marty. Trying to help influence George McFly to defend himself against Biff and his goons. Or even just snagging a picture with Einstein, Doc Browns trusty pooch pal!
This piece of entertainment was extremely popular with crowds visiting the event. Massive crowds of people would congregate to watch reenactments of the Back to the Future scenes. Culminating with the Clocktower lighting strike with the film being projected on the Courthouse facade. This was such a surreal moment for us and it brought tears to our eyes.
The original tagline to Universal Studios Hollywood was “Ride The Movies!”. After experiencing Destination Hill Valley, they need to bring it back…with a twist. They need to make it “Live The Movies!”.
ROOM TO GROW
With any new event, there is always room for improvements and adjustments. To be honest, we didn’t see much. But we do have some thoughts. One of the biggest problems we encountered at the event was food service and operations. Multiple times throughout the night, we encountered large wait times for food. Not because there were tremendous amounts of people swarming food locations. But because these food locations were severely understaffed. At Quark’s Cafe, we were waiting for one item for nearly 20 mins, with nearly 10-15 people in front of us still! Thankfully the staff was incredibly helpful and apologetic. If anything, we felt terrible for the staff having to deal with so many unhappy guests. These type of issues lead to much frustration for us, because we didn’t want to waste valuable event time by waiting in line for food. Maybe the park underestimated the demand, but we are hoping this can get adjusted.
Additionally, we think the event as a whole could have been marketed better. Even on the event day, we had people asking us if each night was a different fandom or if it was all on the same night. This just falls down to a fundamental failure to market the event properly. As we mentioned, even the experience descriptions were vague. With a vague understanding of event details, how could anyone possibly buy tickets to an all new after hours event?
OVERALL
Universal Studios Hollywood has successfully created an endearing and heartfelt experience for guests to show their love for their fandoms. With a wide ranging scope of IP and experiences, Universal Fan Fest Nights not only kept us entertained, it made us feel like kids again. Typically that’s the type of magic is reserved for the Mouse down the street!
And moving into future years of the event, much like HHN, they can have a rotating selection of IP’s that can be brought in to entice more people and different fandoms. The future of Universal Fan Fest Nights is bright and we are excited to see what’s on the horizon for the event.
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